I Dreamt
by Once Upon This Time
Summary: An alternate ending to the first unmasking in ALW's musical, EC


I Dreamt

I slept

As I slept

I dreamt

As I dreamed

I remembered.

Mist

Lake

Candles

Rapture

…Man?

Sans Angel

Sans Phantom

Love.

A Man.

Father was entirely wrong;

Surely he knew it through the long

years. Surely he callously lied about my glorious being of song!

Yet Father did not abandon me to my tears!

He destroyed my fears;

he gave me a gift far more than what I craved in those long years.

Father promised me an angel, an inhuman and unfeeling being sent from above,

He never vowed to send a frightening Phantom to teach me of.-

such Heavenly song. He certainly did not promise a mortal man, an Earthly love.

How blest am I;

for Father's wondrous folly. Surely he watches from a distant blue sky;

Surely he rejoices as I, to see the truth of my.-

mortal Angel.

The bridal gown!

To love an angel is a mortal sin, but my Angel flew down,

a mortal Man.

I was forbid to love him; now I freely can.

I slept.

As I slept,

I dreamt.

As I dreamt,

I remembered.

As I remembered,

I forgot.

Innocent slumber murdered,

defiled. I wake

into a nightmare.

The cacophony of sound

sounds of dread,

anguish.

Music?

I will surely perish

Beneath the beauty

and the horror-

The world is silent for a moment.

A tinkling music, as though-meant

to soothe, trickles gen'tly through the air,

did the Angel send it there?

I remember,

I escape,

I fully wake.

This strange world is dark, the fabled light seeming to grow dim.

This is not Heaven; it is terrifying and grim.-

_I see him!_

The world enchants once more.

Gleeful timidity rushes in, as though- through a sudd'nly opened door.

What shall I do?

What shall I say?

In what way

May I sweetest convey

these feelings?

How can I lock away recollections of that voice, fuller and richer than the pealings

of the sweetest

bells?

I creep closer, the only sounds the swells

of faraway waves. He does not see me yet;

he leaves me to dizzily fret.

_The mask!_

I nearly forgot

that mystery, the half-dreamed task.

Why would he conceal his beauty beneath the mask?

Surely he has no reason to hide

a single side.

Surely his beauty extends-

All thought of beauty ends

when I see the flesh.- of his partial countenance.

The mask is surreal, a shining white,

but the side opposite the right

so handsome the previous night

pales in the candle'ight.

He is far older than I, this man,

shown as only the lines of his face can.

And his lower lip- not the lip of an ordinary man-

is malshaped.

They cannot be his features- Angel or Man!

To what further horrors is that lip connected?

What is this deceiving man?

I should flee, but I must know,

who is _this_, and where did He go?

I reach,

he moves away-

he does not see;

he is not even aware of me.

I prayed.

As I prayed,

I resolved.

As I resolved,

I reached.

As I reached,

I touched.

When I touch,

I pull.

Horror!

The world falls away.

Horror!

I am entombed with a monster

beyond keenest imagination

a festering creature.

it attacks in the instant I absorb its every inhuman feature.

It stumbles

It falls

It gives a nightmarish roar which echoes along the walls.

It crawls,

it weeps.

_His voice!_

His voice.

It is He.

God

and

Father

what have I done?

I beg Heaven for it to be undone!

He huddles there,

sobbing still,

until,

his trembling hand reaches out

and when I do not move

strokes a caress timid and devout,

to my cheek.

The briefest instant, his touch is gone, as though his caress does not belong.

We stare in silence.- O, how long!

The impossible distortion of his face

holds no detraction, no place,

from his heart and soul.

How wretched am I

to so basely idoli-

-ze the youth and beauty of the princes

Father spoke of!

Is beauty the only path to love?

He crawls away with a sob of the greatest sorrow

and lament;

once more his arm is outstretched, fingers bent

for the mask.

I weep.

As I weep,

I think.

As I think,

I love.

As I love,

I throw the mask away.

As the mask falls away,

I place my hand

In

his.


End file.
